[6] Upon graduating, Hoffman studied international relations at New College, Oxford, where he obtained a postgraduate Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil) degree.

His dissertation was entitled "Jewish Terrorist Activities and the British Government in Palestine, 1939–1947" and was supervised by Michael Howard with assistance from Bernard Wasserstein.

He left RAND in 1994 when he was appointed senior lecturer (and, subsequently, reader) in international relations at the University of St Andrews.

In 1994, he co-founded (with Professor Paul Wilkinson) and was the first director of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV) at St Andrews, where he was also chairman of the Department of International Relations (1994–1998).

Hoffman served as a commissioner on the 9/11 Review Commission, which examined the Federal Bureau of Investigation's ability to counter terrorism, radicalization and cyber crime.

[18] His latest book is "God, Guns, and Sedition: Far Right Terrorism in America" which will be published by Columbia University Press in December 2023.

He co-edited with Fernando Reinares The Evolution of the Global Terrorist Threat: From 9/11 to Osama bin Laden's Death (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014).

[21] Since 2008, Hoffman has also contributed fourteen articles to the hardcopy and online versions of The National Interest, and was also the author of the January/February 2009 cover story, "Obama's Angels: Can Hillary & Co. Keep Us Safe?—The Age of Woman.

"[22] Hoffman has been profiled in The New Yorker by Nicolas Leman ("Letter From Washington: What Terrorists Want—Rethinking the fight against bin Laden," October 29, 2001);[23] in the Los Angeles Times ("Putting Theory Into Practice," November 18, 2001);[24] the Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin ("Die Dunkle Seite Der Macht: Bruce Hoffman its der machtigste Politikberater der Welt—Bruce Allmachig/The Dark Side Of Power: Bruce Hoffman is the most powerful political adviser in the world—Bruce Almighty," November 12, 2004); and, was the subject of a front-page article in the New York Sunday Times Week in Review, titled, "A Not Very Private Feud Over Terrorism" (June 8, 2008).

[27] Hoffman was cited by Washingtonian magazine in its March 2021 cover story as among the "250 Most Influential People" "who'll be playing the biggest roles in federal Washington's policy debates of the next few years."

[28] He was named one of "Washington DC's 500 Most Influential People" by Washingtonian magazine in both its May 2022 [29] and May 2023 special supplements, again in the "National Security And Defense" category.